BlackBerry takes on Western Union with BBM Money transfers... in Indonesia

0.phoneArena
27 Feb 2013, 15:48posted on

BlackBerry has made it clear that it believes emerging markets are a key to the platform and the company making a comeback in the smartphone market. With that in mind, BlackBerry has launched a new pilot program in Indonesia which will pit BlackBerry Messenger against Western Union for money transfers...

Please update your fact a little bit.
1. Indonesia was one of the BB strong market, but in the 2012, BB were not leading the market in Indonesia anymore. You could search the web with google/yahoo/bong/etc to find this fact.
2. BB also already lost the momentum in Indonesia, most of the rich guy who can afford another expensive phone already moved away to the other platform after using a BB/android or BB/iphone combo for a while. (Fact: In Indonesia, it's very common to have 2 or 3 phone and considered cool/awesome. Around 60% of office-worker/business-man/business-woman have more than 1 phone).

Android became the most popular operating system in Indonesia’s smartphone market, commanding a 52 percent share, according to International Data Corporation, an IT and telecommunication research group, in a report released on Thursday. It didn’t give comparable figures for the first quarter.

RIM has been losing out to rivals such as Samsung — which recently unveiled its Galaxy III handsets — and HTC, both because of their touchscreens and because RIM has delayed the release of new models. Still, BlackBerry remained the top smartphone brand, IDC said.

........

Meanwhile, the market shares of BlackBerry and Nokia’s Symbian, two pioneers and former leaders of the smartphone market, both fell below 5 percent, the research group said. Globally, IDC reported that Android had a 68.1 percent market share of all smartphones shipped during the quarter, while BlackBerry and Symbian had 4.8 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

The surge in demand for Android-based phones has led to large-scale marketing efforts by local mobile-phone retailers including Erajaya Swasembada, which recently opened a new store in Jakarta that sells Android products exclusively.

........

Yulita, the businesswoman in international trade, says she uses her Android as her main phone but is also holding onto her BlackBerry, at least for now, to make use of its messenger service, and won’t buy any new models. When asked on how long she would cling on to her BlackBerry, she said: “Until my friends stop using it.” "

"Research in Motion Ltd must chart a tough course in its two key emerging markets of India and Indonesia: quickly launch cheaper handsets to woo lower-end subscribers while restoring its tattered brand among the countries' status-conscious.

The company, which is rebranding itself BlackBerry after its best-known smartphone, has won millions of followers in these two Asian countries, mostly by selling cheaper handsets and offering service packages as low as $2 a month.

So it's unlikely that the Z10 model introduced last week, which operators in India expect to sell for around $750, will appeal to the users it must reach if it is to build market share.

"It's clear that not only are India and Indonesia among the largest markets but in terms of future smartphone growth, they're amongst the ones with the most potential," said Melissa Chau, senior research manager at technology research group IDC in Singapore.

"But the two devices that have been launched are not well aligned to the needs of these two markets." "

most of indonesians use bb not because of the phone itself, it is their friends who are persuading them to use it because of bbm, that said, samsung is starting to make some traction here, most people have 2 phones one is bb one is either iPhone or S3 or Note ii

likewise, people are starting to realize that bb is outdated compared to android or iPhone

When people starting to flock to BB, it looks great. But when people starting to move away it have the power of collapsing domino effect.

I've seen the destruction of BB community in a couple of Indonesia Big company. It start with the director, IT guy using the Android/iphone. Then the ALL-MUST-BBM start to change to whats app. After a while, the other employee start to move away from BB to Whatsapp. After 2-3 months, BBM is no longer mandatory. And that's the tipping point.

BBM is also a two sided sword. When the boss/leader/higher-power ask/force other to use BBM, theres a love-hate situation with BBM. and when these people finally get the BBM out of the system, the hatred toward BBM becoming hostile. This ex-BB user will insult BB to no-end and make the society around him aware that BB is not as good as Android/iphone. This is the poison pill that make BB CAN'T recover with BB10 in USA/UK/everywhere.

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